Lanza Zamanillo, Fernando (2024) Reclaiming AIDS : stories of survivors within a queer archive. PhD thesis, Birkbeck, University of London.
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Abstract
This thesis explores the lived experiences of long-term survivors (LTS) of HIV/AIDS, gay men diagnosed in the early 1980s before effective medical treatment became available in around 1996 in the United Kingdom. Studies in the social sciences often focus on experiences of HIV/AIDS stigma and discrimination, as well as related issues such as isolation, ageism, and mental health problems. Although these experiences are unquestionably essential for understanding the lives of LTS, queer emotions and feelings are equally significant for making sense of the confusing reality they experienced when realising that HIV might not kill them, how this realisation constructs their present, and the ways in which it will shape their future. By addressing these largely overlooked aspects of LTS’ lives, I argue that the ‘AIDS crisis’ has not ended but is an ongoing phenomenon that continues to shape LTS’ social and cultural lives. I focus on filmed interviews from a community-based archive held at the London Metropolitan Archive. Informed by my friendship with the archivist, I employ queer methodology and methods to articulate how queer grief and queer failure contributes to, and even exacerbate, the position of LTS as minoritarian subjects within the dominant normalisation rhetoric around what it means to live with HIV. I conclude the analysis by showing how narratives of historical solidarities, political movements, and spaces of care define ‘community’ in terms of futurity. The expectation and hope of a collective project remains ultimately an alternative to imaging and producing a better world for HIV/AIDS LTS. My thesis challenges the idea of the ‘end of AIDS’ discourse and helps to situate LTS as the subjects of an enduring crisis rather than part of history.
Metadata
| Item Type: | Thesis |
|---|---|
| Copyright Holders: | The copyright of this thesis rests with the author, who asserts his/her right to be known as such according to the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988. No dealing with the thesis contrary to the copyright or moral rights of the author is permitted. |
| Depositing User: | Acquisitions And Metadata |
| Date Deposited: | 02 Jan 2025 18:33 |
| Last Modified: | 12 Jun 2025 04:38 |
| URI: | https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/54772 |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.18743/PUB.00054772 |
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